Let the Flood Wash In
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day six hundred and thirteen:  Berry.St  When Alternate Jesse tries to appeal to Rachel, they put some cards on the table.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 29th cycle. Now cycle 30!_

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><p><strong>Hear that little bird twitter!<strong> _Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!_

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><p><strong>"Let the Flood Wash In"<br>AU!Jesse, Rachel, Quinn, AU!Jesse/Quinn  
>#16 (sequel to 'Bagging the Evil Twin') <strong>

They'd decided to back off a little while. Jesse wasn't sure at first, didn't want to make it any longer than it had to be before he could go home, to his world, his McKinley… his Quinn. But the other Quinn, from this world, had pointed out that they wouldn't get anywhere if he scared this Rachel away for good. So, with some apprehension, he had accepted. He didn't look forward to spending more time with the robots at Carmel High, but he had yet to find a solid plan that would land him back in Lima. If there was some consolation, it was that even if she wasn't his, he did have this world's Quinn to talk to until they could try again with this other Rachel. Then all they could do was speculate.

They only real thing they could agree on so far was that whatever was happening, he was, like this Rachel, a victim of circumstance, in the sense that it wasn't them who had something to resolve, it was the other two, the Rachel of McKinley and Jesse of Carmel. In each world, they had been taken, the two of them, and moved, except he, Jesse of McKinley, and Rachel of Carmel had never met before this whole thing began, so how could it possibly be about them?

So it was about the others… great… But what did this mean for them? Were they just going to be stuck there until their doppelgangers got their act together? Who knew how long that would take…

With each passing day though, Jesse became convinced that, even though it looked like they had zero control in this, maybe if they tried, then they could figure something out. He didn't tell Quinn this yet. At least, he could try going to Rachel, reason with her… She was smart, and she'd managed on her own, as far as they could tell, so maybe she had the key and none of them knew.

One afternoon, skipping his last few classes, he'd gotten on the road to Lima. It had started raining before he left Akron, but he kept going. If she was on Vocal Adrenaline training, then he could bet she was hanging back at McKinley, to practice. The rain had only gotten worse as he got closer, but he wouldn't turn back. He was closer to Lima than Akron – in more ways than one – so going back made no sense. Besides, she probably wouldn't have noticed the weather from the auditorium…

By the time he reached the school, he could barely see the road, the downpour was so strong. He ran from his car to the door, and he was water logged already. He shook the water from his hair, squeezed it from his sleeves. His shoes squeaked across the halls and it was a good thing he wasn't going for stealth. He could hear the music as he neared the auditorium doors… just as he'd figured.

He stood at the back, watching for a while. In deciding to come talk to her, he hadn't actually considered what he was supposed to tell her. What could he tell her that wouldn't end the way it did last time… Last time… He remembered, Quinn telling him something, and then he knew… It was a start, at least; He would need it. Rachel had stopped singing, and she was just staring at him from down on the stage. Her eyes were as lethal as Quinn had described to him. He had to start talking now, or she'd leave again, and he would have made it there, to Lima, for nothing.

"What's changed?" he called out to her. She frowned.

"Changed?"

"There's something here that's not the way it was in your… in our world, isn't there? Something you don't want to leave if you go back…" He was careful in pacing his steps, approaching, but not rushing. Still, she took off, not slow in her case, climbing the steps up the other aisle almost two at a time until she could get out the door and continue down the hall. Jesse took a moment to react, but then he followed. "Rachel…"

"If you keep this up, I'll have you arrested," she just continued. "I told you to leave me alone, so why can't you leave me alone?"

"Because we don't belong here. I know you know that, and the fact that you're not too concerned about going back tells me there's something keeping you here," he carried on, just as they reached the doors. The rain had actually gotten worse. There was no way they could go out there, not if they valued their lives. He could tell she was actually considering it though, instead of staying and talking to him. "Whatever it is, I hope it's worth in keeping me stuck here. And I don't mean this school. I'll be in the auditorium," he told her and walked away. With any luck, she would decide to join him, realizing they were trapped until the weather changed.

He sat in the middle, at the heart of the audience, and he waited. He imagined one minute going by, then another, then five, ten, thirty, an hour… and she'd either never show, or she would take a solid fifteen minutes, let him sweat… It was one minute, maybe a minute and a half before she sat, not plopped, in the seat next to him.

"My fathers split up, a few years back. I moved to Akron with one of them… We used to live here, you know? I would have been here, at McKinley, if they hadn't…" She stopped.

"Well, you are here, in this reality at least, so I assume that means they're still together?" he asked, kindly.

"You know, I'm not… I'm not always… I used to be their little girl, their pride and joy…" He looked at her, as though to say 'but then?' "Guess they were too busy fighting. So I had to figure things out on my own. I had no idea how much I missed having them, as one, until I got them back." He gave a silent nod. "So… what about you? What's your sob story?" He chuckled.

"It's not a sob story… the opposite. Fell in love with a girl that I wasn't supposed to. People got hurt along the way, friends of ours… I thought I was going to lose her, but I didn't… we found a way to make it work, and then… I ended up here. Now she's back there, with this other guy who looks like me, and what if she's got no idea?" his gaze was lost in his words.

"You're worried about her," now Rachel guessed. She thought. "It's Quinn, isn't it? Well, the other one…" Jesse nodded. "I'm sure she's fine. From what I've seen of this one, yours should be smart enough to know something isn't right." He bowed his head, let out a breath, then looked at her.

"So now that you're talking to me, does that mean you'll help?" he asked. She didn't reply, but she didn't run.

They startled when they heard it. The school was empty, silent, so one door clacking open somewhere was loud enough to hear. They looked to one another, then got up and out of the auditorium to go check it out. "Rain's getting lighter," Rachel noticed as they passed windows. They turned the corner, and there was the door, batting at the wall and, nearby, the one who'd opened it. She was dripping wet and staring back at them, transfixed. Jesse blinked.

"Quinn, what are you…" he started, then, explaining, "I know I said we'd wait to talk to her, but I thought about what you said, and I thought I could try… It worked, I got her talking," he smiled, encouraging. That was when it dawned, not on him but on Rachel, that on her face it was not rain but tears that ran, that she only had eyes for…

"Jesse?" Quinn's voice cracked. One word, and his eyes grew wide… He'd learned the difference by now. It was small, but it was there, the difference between this world and…

"Quinn…" he spoke, and he knew he was right. He didn't know what it meant, but this was her… his girlfriend, his Quinn. And because he knew it, and she knew it, along came relief as they ran into each other's arms. They held fast for a time before looking back into the other's eyes, needing to see again the look they had both been denied since this had all started. They laughed, they kissed.

Rachel watched them, left on her own. All she could think of… It wasn't the boyfriend she'd left behind in Vocal Adrenaline, no… Now those two were together, maybe she'd get her wish, to stay with her fathers. McKinley wasn't exactly her thing, but she could adjust if it meant she had her family.

Of course it also dawned on her that if this Quinn was here, then the other one would be with the other pair, no doubt joining their efforts to return to this place… Well, she wasn't giving up so easy.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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